Shirley Spear, Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

18.06.2016

Needless to say, I am absolutely honoured to receive this award and the news was completely unexpected. My first thought is to say how much I would like to share this with everyone I have worked with closely over the past 31 years towards improving Scotland’s Food and Drink Industry, especially my husband Eddie and my children, Sarah, Steven and Lindsay, who have shared my passion as well as the workload with me every day.

I am very proud of everything connected with Scotland’s amazing Food and Drink and in particular, its inextricable link with Tourism and Hospitality to which I have dedicated most of my working life. I remain determined to help bring about even greater changes to our health and well-being as a nation through my work with the Scottish Food Commission, which is intent upon building a Good Food Nation for everyone. This is a large mountain to climb and right now, we are only finding our way through the foothills. There is a great deal of work to be done to bring about a whole movement for change. Absolutely every member of the population has a personal role to play in making it happen.

I hope I can use my new status to bring greater recognition for the need for many more improvements and ensure that the Scottish Government will listen to those whom I know are already working extremely hard to make change happen in education, health and our communities everywhere.